Chamber and committees

The COVID pandemic has inevitably affected A&E attendance and the pressure is being felt across the UK. Our NHS staff have faced unprecedented pressures over recent weeks as they work tirelessly and consistently to respond to the pandemic whilst continuing to provide vital treatment and optimal patient care. We are in daily contact with every Board, including NHS Forth Valley, and are monitoring the situation closely.

The significant pressures currently presenting in Health Boards, including NHS Forth Valley, are primarily as a result of reduced capacity due to infection control, staffing pressures as a result of self-isolation and annual leave, and an increase in attendances to A&E by those who are much sicker and require higher levels of care.

In July, NHS Forth Valley received their share of the additional £12 million in funding for Boards to support non-COVID emergency care by increasing staffing resource, recruitment is underway.

We are in daily contact with NHS Forth Valley and continue to support improvement work with the Board and the Health & Social Care Partnerships to minimise delays for patients no matter where they are in the system.

The Scottish Government does not collect statistics on private or fee-paying schools, including on the destinations of their leavers. Scottish Government statistical collections focus on publicly funded and Grant Aided schools for which it provides funding.

In the National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan, we set out our approach to measuring the poverty related attainment gap with 11 key measures identified to assess progress. We have plans to formally review the 11 NIF measures with partners to ensure they are comprehensive, as we recognise that national data needs to provide an accurate understanding of the wide range of learners’ achievement. Local authorities and school leaders are also able to use local knowledge and data to ensure support is targeted towards the children and young people who require it most.

Arrangements have been made so that the settlement of these costs will not affect the operational effectiveness of COPFS, and will not require to be met from the COPFS resource budget allocation.

Any overall funding changes required to support expenditure come from careful budget management across the Scottish Government budget. Budget transfers are reported to Parliament as part of the Autumn and Spring Budget revisions.

The Scottish Government continues to support investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, both for plug-in battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Across a range of programmes, we have invested £90 million in infrastructure related to battery electric vehicles and over £12 million in hydrogen electric transport projects.

Investment in public charging infrastructure has enabled the development of the ChargePlace Scotland network, now one of the largest in the UK. Investment has also included schemes to support installation of business and domestic electric car chargers, infrastructure to enable decarbonisation of light and heavy vehicles in the public sector, and decarbonisation of buses used for public transport.

The Scottish Government has also committed £50 million towards the Scottish Zero-Emission Bus Challenge Fund, (ScotZEB) which is currently open for bids until 04 November 2021. This £50 million is allocated to both vehicles and infrastructure on a whole-project basis.

Future funding programmes have yet to be determined but the Scottish Government Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021 committed to £120m investment for net zero electric buses and £287m from the Future Transport Fund to support a range of low and zero carbon transport initiatives between 21-22 and
‎ 25-26.

Please note that the answer above reflects spending across distinct Scottish Government programmes for which we are able to determine spend. Investment will also occur across portfolios as part of business as usual activity.

We are in daily contact with Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), and are monitoring the situation closely, including in Fife HSCP. Health Boards and HSCPs have provided assurances that people in need of the most urgent care will continue receiving care during this challenging period.

We are working with local partners to address these pressures at a local and national level, including putting in place measures to support recruitment and multi-disciplinary working. Some of the immediate actions we have taken include: funding support to advertise vacant posts on a dedicated social care webpage; and targeted communication with Further and Higher Education nursing students and Social Work students, to encourage applications to join the workforce.

Further, we have allocated an additional £380 million to Health Boards to help with costs arising from the pandemic. This comes on top of the £1.7 billion already provided to Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships last year.

Creative Scotland provide a wide variety of support, both regular and project funding, to theatres of all types.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic the Scottish Government distributed emergency funds through two rounds of the Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund and the Cultural Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund. These funds were administered on behalf of the Scottish Government by Creative Scotland The details of all individual awards are published on Creative Scotland’s website ( Further £17million emergency funding reaches Culture Organisations and Performing Arts Venues | Creative Scotland )

Creative Scotland’s funding programmes adhere to criteria which are widely published and, subject to eligibility, are open to any organisation. Decisions are based on how well any applicant meets the criteria. The decision making process also ensures a spread of scale, purpose and location.

Public funding support for theatres covers commercial organisations as well as those with charitable or other not-for-profit status. The context for commercial organisations would always be that the funded activity was not profit generating and meets the public value purpose of Creative Scotland’s funding.

Creative Scotland are currently reviewing the way that they fund organisations and this will include how they fund theatres.

They will be finalising a refreshed funding framework for implementation from
‎ 2023-24 onwards.

The Scottish Government publishes information on the initial (3 months after leaving school) and follow-up (9 months after leaving school) destinations of school leavers from publicly funded schools.

Initial destination: School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Follow-up destination: School education statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Note that this does not directly identify the proportion who have gone to university but does identify those who have went in to Higher Education. Within these statistics Higher Education is defined based on the qualification being studied rather than the place of study. It covers those following a course of study at a level higher than the standard of the National Qualifications, i.e. above SCQF level 7. This includes degree courses, courses for the education and training of teachers, higher level courses for professional qualification and Higher National Certificate / Diploma or equivalent. This will include those studying such courses at University but also in other settings such as a Higher Education Institutions or Colleges.

The latest follow-up destinations data on the proportion of publicly funded school leavers who were in Higher Education is provided below. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the percentage of independent school leavers who have gone to university or Higher Education.

Proportion of school leavers from publicly funded schools with Higher Education follow-up destination

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the 2021 grade results broken down by state and independent school.

The SQA plan to publish information on 2021 results broken down by centre type on their website ( Statistics 2021 - SQA ) on 21 September 2021. This will provide information on the percentage of entries which resulted in a grade A, B, C etc.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the 2021 grade results broken down by state and independent school.

The SQA plan to publish information on results be centre type - Attainment Statistics for every National Qualification in 2021, tabulated by Centre Type (Education Authority Schools, Independent Schools, Colleges) - on their website ( Statistics 2021 - SQA ) on 21 September 2021.

As the member will be aware, capital investment is funded from the Scottish Government’s capital budget and its limited borrowing powers.

The annual Medium Term Financial Strategy which was last published alongside the Scottish Budget on 28 January, details the Scottish Government’s borrowing policies, including the source of capital borrowing. The National Loans Fund is the preferred source of capital borrowing because it remains the most cost effective approach to maximising the limitations of the fiscal framework restrictions.

If the Scottish Government had the same borrowing powers as local authorities, alternative sources of borrowing, including bonds, would become a more attractive option.